Orange linebacker: Derrell Smith The Post-Standard sports writer Dave Rahme interviews Derrell Smith, linebacker for SU football. In the Q&A, Smith talks about coming to Syracuse University and why he is glad he stayed.

Syracuse, NY -- Derrell Smith has worn many hats in his four seasons as a Syracuse University football player. Defensive end. Tailback. Outside linebacker. Middle linebacker.

The senior will don on a new one Thursday. Chef. Smith said he and outside linebacker Doug Hogue will prepare their own Thanksgiving feast following the Orange’s practice in preparation for Saturday’s noon Big East game vs. Boston College (6-5) in the Carrier Dome.

“That will be my first Thanksgiving dinner as a chef,” Smith said, pausing before adding, “on the low. Don’t tell anybody.”

The menu will feature “a big chicken” instead of turkey, collard greens, candied yams, macaroni and cheese and sweet potato pie. Hogue is on the hook for the pie, Smith the rest.

Sounds like a plan. Smith is hoping everything will turn out just the way his SU football career has. It may be messy at times, and there will likely be some setbacks along the way, but when he and Hogue finally push back from the table chances are it will be with the immense satisfaction that comes with ultimate success.

That certainly defines Smith’s tenure at Syracuse. In the classroom he has already earned a degree in information management and technology with a minor in marketing and is pursuing his masters in advertising. On the field he will enter the BC game leading the Orange (7-4) in tackles (91), forced fumbles (3) and fumble recoveries (3). A potential NFL career awaits. So does a postseason bowl game for the first time in his college career.

Not bad for a player who split his first season as a tailback (he carried the ball five times each in losses to Washington and Iowa) and a pass-rushing defensive end and his second as an outside linebacker before moving into the middle when Doug Marrone became head coach last season.

“Since freshman year I’ve definitely worn a lot of faces,” Smith said. “It’s been humbling at times, but it’s also been uplifting for the simple fact that I had an opportunity to play so many positions and experience so many things at those positions.”

What Smith experienced most his first three seasons was losing, as the Orange went 5-19 while he played for Greg Robinson and 4-8 in Marrone’s inaugural season. Despite the struggles, Smith said he never regretted for an instant his decision to accept a scholarship offer to play at SU, one he believes was due to intervention from above.

The 2005 Gatorade Player of the Year in Delaware was on the phone with a coach from the Naval Academy and about to announce his intention to play there when former SU assistant coach Tim Cross called on another line and made a pitch for the player. Smith accepted immediately.

“I wouldn’t take the decision back for the world,” Smith said. “It’s like maybe God interfered there.”

Once here, Smith probably wondered at times what God was thinking, as the team hit the skids and Robinson hit the door, soon to be replaced by Marrone and his no-nonsense approach. Smith said he was fine with the infusion of discipline – remember, he was headed to the Naval Academy – but Marrone’s request that he move inside to middle linebacker was a whole other issue.

“It was horrible,” Smith said. “I didn’t think I could do it. During preseason camp last year I went in to the coaches and said, ‘I can’t play this.’ I couldn’t read the O-line, I couldn’t read the running backs. I was used to being out of the box (at outside linebacker) where everything happened so slow, where at middle linebacker it happens so fast.”

“He struggled with his reads when we moved him,” Marrone said. “I don’t know if he remembers this (Smith did), but I would stand behind him in practice and push him in the right direction when I saw where the play was going. He was frustrated, but he worked his butt off.”

Smith said linebackers coach Dan Conley did, too, “and today here I am.”
Where he is today is a senior captain and star on a team that was 4-8 a season ago but has a chance to go 8-4 this season, a remarkable one-year turnaround.

Frank Ordoñez / The Post-StandardSyracuse University middle linebacker Derrell Smith loosens up before a recent game in the Carrier Dome

“There was no doubt in my mind (it would happen),” Smith said. “Off-season was probably one of the most vigorous as far as personal effort. Everybody realized that this is our senior year. You only live once. Why not go out with a winning season and be a part of changing the whole program around? Everybody bought into it and brought the underclassmen along with us.”

It has been quite a ride, especially for the seniors such as Smith, who endured a long famine before enjoying a football feast this season.

“When I think of Derrell I think of the great success he has had on the field and in the classroom,” Marrone said. “I’m really looking forward to great things from him in life. He is a bright, bright kid, one of many of those stories we have on this team.”

There will likely be another story to tell Friday. Something about chicken and collard greens and candied yams . . .

Nicholas Lisi / The Post-StandardSaturday's home game against Boston College will be the Carrier Dome farewell for Syracuse University senior captains Derrell Smith (25), Rob Long (47) and Ryan Bartholomew (70). The three are shown leading the Orange onto the field last week to play Connecticut.